Balls Out and Up

July 20, 2016

Mike Warkentin

Heavy medicine balls burden athletes for their final test on Day 1 of the individual competition.

The worst ones can always get worse.

Recall that the Sandbag Sprint, Event 3 at the 2009 CrossFit Games, sent heat after heat of athletes sprinting up the hill with faces twisted in agony. They collapsed in heaps in the dust, writhing about as fans and photographers alike captured the misery for posterity.

Many former competitors have pointed to that test as particularly miserable, and it’s fitting that a variation should show up in 2016.

The last event at The Ranch: 50 wall-ball shots (30/20 lb.), 25 GHD sit-ups with the medicine ball, and a run up the hill with the ball.

The early heat of women discovered the same thing 2009 competitors discovered about the wall-ball station at The Ranch: the asphalt isn’t totally level. It generally slopes away from the target panel mounted on the barn, and in some places it slopes sideways, too.

First-year Games competitor Alexis Johnson said she got knocked back and sideways by the wall-ball shots, ruining her rhythm and forcing her to pace herself.

“If I was able to do the wall balls well, it definitely would have been an eight out of 10 on the pain.”

Johnson said she trains once a week with a 20-lb. medicine ball but “always in ideal conditions. Rookie mistake, right?”

Several athletes found the hill run to be more about strategy than they anticipated.

“I blew out on that first bit,” Mitchell Sinnamon told Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson as the latter was awaiting his heat. Sinnamon explained that he went too hard at the beginning and thought there was more ground to be made up with a late sprint.

Kara Webb—also knocked around on the slanted ground but more than happy to accept the rugged conditions—said the opposite approach was better.

“I reckon a lot of people are walking on the first bit because they’re afraid of what will happen up there… ,” she said, pointing to the very steep finish area.  "You’ve just got to get going.”

Stacie Tovar, who competed here in 2009, said she was prepared for the sloped ground but that didn’t help: Everyone deals with the same conditions. She said it was more important to shake off a no-rep and avoid stopping on the wall balls. She tried but couldn’t catch Emily Abbott, whose 5:07.17 was the best time after two heats.

The third men’s heat sent a tight pack of beasts up the hill in a group, but they quickly spread out as some chose to walk while others chose a slow jog or the inelegant and indecisive run-walk.

In the end, victory went to those who kept running no matter what.

Brent Fikowski, winner of Ranch Mini Chipper and third overall after Day 1, discovered the correct strategy in training.

“I’ve done some hill sprints at home with a weighted vest and a kettlebell. … When I did those, I made sure I didn’t stop running, even if it was a slow run,” he said.

His 4:14.1 was the best time of the day, followed by Mat Fraser’s 4:20.44 and Patrick Vellner’s 4:22.44.

Two-time Games champ Annie Thorisdottir discovered the correct strategy to win the event when Guðmundsson called advice across to her in Icelandic. When Games Director Dave Castro told Guðmundsson’s heat Cole Sager had finished in 4:29.05, the Icelander revised a strategy originally based on the eight-minute time cap.

“As soon as you’re done with the GHDs, you just have to grind it out. It’s not that far,” he said.

Just before Thorisdottir’s heat, he told her exactly that, and Thorisdottir confirmed she completely revised her plan on the spot just seconds before the event. She tossed the idea of breaking up the wall balls and pushed through, knowing “I can always do GHDs.”

Then she just decided to ignore the pain and get moving.

“The only place I really wanted to walk was right here … ,” she said, gesturing to the steep section at the base of the hill. “But my goal was to run.

Run she did, all the way to an event win in 4:28.51 and first overall after Day 1. Brooke Wells was second in 4:52.36, and Tennil Reed was third in 4:53.30.

With three events and Day 1 of the competition behind them, several 2009 competitors took the time to reflect on the Sport of Fitness, born from a rusty peanut roaster sitting in the barn.

Looking toward the spot where her CrossFit Omaha group pitched a tent back in 2009, Tovar offered up a wistful summary of a retro day at The Ranch.

“It feels the exact same. Just the smell and the taste of the dirt, the way my skin feels” she said with a smile.

She added: “I will never forget that 2009 Sandbag Sprint.”

Thorisdottir, standing almost where she got her very first muscle-up in 2009, was moved by her return to The Ranch.

“I didn’t expect it to feel like this. When we drove up, it was a little bit emotional because this is where I started my CrossFit journey,” she said.

Thorisdottir recalled being shy about her English, doing interviews with CrossFit Media Director and filmmaker Sevan Matossian, and having Seminar Staff member and judge Chuck Carswell talk her through the chipper in which she locked out a memorable muscle-up after many missed reps.

She gestured to the spot where the rig holding the rings stood in 2009:

“I fell in love with CrossFit right here.” 


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